The shutters were still chirping long enough into Kei Nishikori’s press conference for the cameras to capture him looking visibly uncomfortable. He had no fancy sweatsuit, and was still in the same lime-green shirt he wore during his match. Suddenly, the 18-year-old finally settled into his chair and flashed a boyish smile. It was time to answer questions in Japanese.
He gave long, nuanced answers to about a dozen Japanese reporters. He was so charming, they all left with smiles on their faces. For many of them, this was a day they have been waiting for.
“Tennis is not popular in Japan, it is more for recreation” said Hiromasa Mano, one of the photographers incessantly snapping his picture. “For many people it’s difficult to understand and also very long. People have no time to watch.”
Those days may be over.
It was Sunday morning in Japan — late Saturday night here — when Nishikori took the court against David Ferrer and just about noon when the match ended. What those who tuned in saw was a complete performance by one of the game’s up-and-coming stars. Few expected Nishikori, ranked 126th in the world, to slay David, the No. 4 player, but he did, in five sets: 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 7-5 in 3 hours, 32 minutes. He advanced to the fourth round against where he will face Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro.
But Ferrer didn’t make advancing easy and it made for an exciting show.
“He started playing great in the third and fourth set. I was tired and my legs were almost cramping, but I tried to think, ‘I am playing David; he’s No. 4 in the world, and playing five sets with him. I felt, like, kind of happy and [started to] think more positive. That’s why I think I could fight through everything.”
He has certainly fought through the odds. He is the first Japanese man to advance to the fourth round, and the youngest to do so since Marat Safin in 1998.
“Everyone probably woke up in the morning and saw the match,” said Masahide Sakamoto, a former tennis player at Pepperdine and an analyst for WOWOW, the network with the exclusive rights to broadcast the tournament in Japan. A producer said he was certain that when the ratings are released Nishikori’s match against Ferrer would be the highest rated tennis-related program in Japan’s history.
“It’s been quite a long time,” since Japan has had a talented tennis player to root for, Masahide said.
Nishikori is just playing his game.
“I never think about it, like, I’m making history or something,” Nishikori told reporters. “But I know Shuzo made the quarters of Wimbledon. I’m very proud of it.”
Proud that his victory was the first time a teenager has beaten a top five player at the U.S. Open since Bjorn Borg defeated Arthur Ashe in 1973? Or proud that at when the tournament ends he could be the highest-ranked Japanese men’s tennis player ever?
Shuzo Matsuoka, who many say is more popular now as a sports broadcaster in Japan than he ever was as a tennis player, was the last Japanese-born player to win an ATP title, and had highest ranking was No. 46. In Bradenton, Nishikori is known as “Project 45.” The “project” looked more like a seasoned veteran against Ferrer.
“He’s a very good player, no?” Ferrer said. “He’s a young player, plays very well and serves really well. [He plays at] a good level.”
With Nishikori’s emergence now the main focus of its many tasks here, WOWOW revamping the way it will promote its next broadcast, the fourth round match against Argentina’s Juan Martin Del Potro. Japanese newspapers carried the news of Nishikori’s win on its front pages. Its trailer just outside the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center was buzzing with activity on Saturday night. There were two leather couches with a coffee table in between them. Playing on a 32-inch LCD television in one corner was Serena Williams’s match against Japan’s Ai Sugiyama from earlier in the day. The walls were covered with memos, press releases and copies of the men’s and women’s draw with notes scrawled in Japanese letters.
IMG’s plan to make Nishikori into the most successful Japanese tennis player ever is not lost on the Japanese and Japanese-Americans here. Sugiyama was among them Saturday who viewed his success as an enormous source of pride. Nishikori trains at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida, which has churned out tennis greats Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Jim Courier.
Masahide believes that if his success continues, Nishikori could be as big a sports figure as baseball’s Ichiro or Dice-K. To that end, the hope is that news of his triumph will dominate Monday’s news cycle in a country obsessed with baseball and soccer and raise tennis’ profile.
When asked if they were rooting for the Japanese youngster, Masahide’s response, if nothing else, illustrated how much is riding on Nishikori’s achievements.
“Obviously we were,” he said. “Can you blame us?”
By Darren Sands, Newsday
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